Framed Botanical Prints

I don't know about your house but the walls of mine are pretty bare. I've got a few prints here and there that I really love, but only a few. I've slowly been working towards finding pretty and/or meaningful art to fill up our walls. I'm kind of picky, but you already knew that.

On my last road trip I found some framed botanical prints at an (expensive) cottage-y shop. They were priced at $175 each. Since I was looking for a set of 4 prints for the dining room, it would have run me about $700. Um, not gonna happen.

As I was standing there weeping at the price tags, my mom happened to mention that she had some old encyclopedias with some botanical prints in them that I could possibly frame. I was hesitant at first ('cause of the picky thing) but once I saw them I knew they would be perfect.

Old books.

Thanks mom!

Pale blues, greens, yellows, pinks, and purples. Perfect.

I went to the only store in this city that sells white frames (Michaels) and picked up four 11x14 frames when they were on sale for 50% off. (Instead of $39.99 per frame I paid $19.99 per frame.) I tried a few different matte options at the store while I was there but they were either too big or too small for the non-standard sized prints.

Frames from Michaels.

I called all of the local frame shops to find the best price on custom cut mattes. I found a little shop downtown that would cut a double matte for $26. At first I was going to skimp out and get just a single matte per picture but then I wanted a more professional look so I went with the double. (Sorry Alex.) For the large matte I chose an off-white that matched the frame. For the inner matte I chose a subtle grey-blue colour called veil that matched the background of the print.

Pale blue-grey background. Love.

White for the outer matte and soft blue-grey for the inner matte.

I looked at the selection of prints in the encyclopedia over and over again until I narrowed it down to my four favourites. 

Four lovelies.

I used my trusty Martha Stewart craft knife to carefully cut each page out of the book. 

Supplies: craft knife and tape. My kind of project.

I then used a single piece of scotch tape to "hinge" the page to the matte at the top only. That's what the lady at the frame shop told me to do. She's an expert or something so I just listened to her. Apparently taping around all of the edges is bad in case of humidity or crumpling or something.

Note: I used scotch tape but I've been told that masking tape is better to use on prints.

Looking good so far.

Ta-da!

Aren't they perty?

Approximate Cost Breakdown:

Four white 11x14 frames at $19.99 each:  $90.35

Four custom cut 11x14 double mattes at $26.75 each: $120.91

Vintage botanical prints that you steal from your mom's encyclopedia set: Free

Total cost for 4 cute, unique, vintage, custom, framed botanical prints:

$211.26

 That's a savings of almost $600 if I were to have bought the pre-framed prints at that cottage-y shop.

Booya!

I cannot wait to get these four prints all wired up and hung on the wall. I am beyond excited. It might have to wait until Saturday morning though since Alex and I are babysitting our nieces tomorrow night. Gotta practice for when Roary's friend comes home!

Oh yeah, if you are interested in finding some botanical prints, try your local used bookstore, an antique shop, or even Etsy (I've seen a few cute sets on there before).

Easy, affordable, and way pretty. :)

Update: You can see them hanging up in our dining room in this post.

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